New Bedford Police seek suspects in separate purse thefts

New Bedford Police are looking for individual men who stole purses from two women in separate incidents Thursday evening.

NEW BEDFORD — Police are looking for individual men who stole purses from two New Bedford women in separate incidents Thursday evening.

One 48-year-old woman was robbed around 6:45 p.m. as she was walking home in the area of Sawyer and Summer streets, Det. Captain Steven Vicente said in a news release. The suspect, a young man in plaid shorts and white sneakers, asked her for the time and followed her as she continued walking, according to the release.

He made off with the purse after a brief struggle, police said.

In the second incident, a man in light-colored baggy pants snatched a purse out of the shopping cart of a 62-year-old woman as she loaded groceries into her car in the Price Rite parking lot at 139 Hathaway Road, the release said.

The suspect fled to a silver Honda Civic with a modified exhaust and a spare tire mounted on the front end of the car, according to the release.

Vicente said police are investigating the purse-snatchings, which occurred within blocks of one another, separately at this time.